#the reason he sucks is because he's abusive to his actors

[wherestoriescomefrom]

every single time this happens people drag out the same trite talking points, out in a single file and like clockwork - but for what it's worth, no you didn't have a mystical sixth sense that neil gaiman was out doing terrible things to people who were his fans. no, there is nothing in him that is fundamentally wrong and evil about him (much as i would like that to be the case), no, you actually cannot separate the art from the artist as anyone would like to do in these situations, and no, making authors and celebrities out to be bigger or better than they are is also perhaps not at fault (and talking points like this always veer dangerously close to blaming victims).

gaiman was an author. an author of considerable power and clout, and his behaviour was perfectly in line with those who are powerful and have a lot of clout. the way in which structures of knowledge recreate situations like this is not new - it happens every few years in universities, when professors take advantage of their students sexually or otherwise. an author like neil gaiman was just another powerful node of the system that produces knowledge, and we have been trained to respect that (for some reason. well for many reasons, but we don't have time to get into that). as long as their is currency attached to producing knowledge - ie, the currency of being a well respected author - there is going to be adverse advantage for those who have that currency.

gaiman abused and assaulted women who were financially dependent on him - he could only do this because he was rich and powerful. and every single author who has that currency has the same advantages, can wield similar control over their victims, and this is not something we can do anything about. we can talk about pushing people off their pedestals (as if that is going to do something), but until the system keeps rewarding you for being on a pedestal, you are going to have the higher ground that allows you to crush whoever sits beneath you. and i know, this is less than a solution than those people who are willing to engage with everyone's hurt feelings about how another author turned out bad - and what if we could stop putting people on a pedestal? but that's the truth.

i'm so tired man. i'm so tired of seeing the same, tired takes. i know it sucks that the answer is to not keep recreating systems of knowledge that make single people out into the holders of great truth - and capitalism sucks, and all these adverse incentives exist for someone to be a rich and famous author - but someone is going to have to acknowledge that this happening every few years with our favourite authors, artists, actors not because we're putting them on pedestals and won't someone please separate the art and the artist and couldn't you tell that his art was evil all along??? it's happening because - IP laws exist, because authors make money off of their intellectual property, and if they make enough money and garner enough respect for the knowledge production they do (no matter how that respect is garnered), there is going to be a class artsy people who have more power, and that means they can exploit it if needed. i know they feel like our friends - because they make art we like, but they are part of the intellectual elite, and just like billionaires, that is a class of society with power and the means to exploit it.

i know that feels like a leap when you're more concerned about good omens being renewed, but i need everyone to just. just have some perspective. there was this quote on my blog which gaiman had written, about love - for two of his friends getting married. and because he clearly respected those people, it was a beautiful quote, completely in disharmony with how he treated those women, the ones he did not respect. the ones he financially abused with his wife and sexually abused by himself. and i want you to know, that no matter how beautiful the quote was, i deleted it from my blog because he was raping that woman while he wrote it.

[cheezewhis]

I'm going to regret this.

Sometimes the iwtv fandom makes me worry about the future of diversity in media. I mean I expect the racist assholes to pop up and bother everyone. That happens all the time and while it sucks, there are ways to filter those people out.

My big worry is honestly on the other end, where people are so desperate for harmony they end up treating minorities like monoliths of purity. Seriously, we have a show with morally grey characters of a variety of colors, a color conscious writing team, actors who constantly discuss the nuances of their characters, and people still find a reason to fight about this. Wasn't this the ideal we were asking for???

How are we supposed to evolve the representation in media if we can't go 2 seconds without fighting about which characters you're "allowed" to like?

You can't like Lestat because then you're condoning his behavior, but you can't condem anything Louis does cause then you're racist, but also you can't like Louis more than Armand because Louis was a pimp, but also you can't like Armand because he killed Claudia, but also that was all Lestat's fault and Armand did nothing wrong and if you don't ship Loumand it's because you're racist and if you do ship Loumand it's because you just hate Lestat and Anne Rice and puppies??? or something, and Clauida is the only character you're actually allowed to like except you are not allowed to like her unless you hate Lestat or Louis because as we've established it's really Lestat's fault she died and also Louis was a bad father and is responsible for Clauida's death so you cant like him either but also you are racist for thinking Louis did something wrong because black characters are not allowed to make mistakes or be nuanced or be human but also you don't get nuance if you like 1x05, you have to hate 1x05 because that episode of the toxic abusive vampire show dared to show toxic abusive vampires and ruined your precious precious perception of Lestat but also if you still like Lestat after that then you must hate Louis because Louis is 5 fucking years old and needs to be coddled but also he's a piece of shit and you cant like him and idk i don't really hear people argue about Daniel but maybe I'm just not looking hard enough and who ever cares cause I lost the plot about 100 fucking words ago.

Like jesus fuck we'll never weed out the racist people in the fandom cause we're too fucking busy fighting each other about, like, if we should let black characters be nuanced and interact with white characters who are mean??? Istg half this fandom thinks Louis (and Jacob Anderson for that matter) is like a battered helpless child who has never been able to stand up for himself. Louis is a character built from very real pain, he's always going to be kind of sad by virtue of that, but he's not 5, he can make decisions for himself.

How the fuck are we supposed to normalize diversity in media if we can't be fucking normal about diversity in media.

Fuck. Everything. And. Everyone.

[mochifiction]

I Saw Transformers One Early Last Week. Let’s Talk About It!!! (SPOILER FREE)

EXPECTATIONS

I’m going to be honest, I had very very low expectations for this movie for a multitude of reasons. The first was the cast, particularly choosing celebrity hires instead of professional voice actors for a franchise where dialogue delivery means SO MUCH historically and the present. I like Chris Hemsworth, I do, but I am so attached to Orion Pax that I did NOT see him as someone fit for the role. I was also afraid of it becoming a WFC situation where the VA tries TOO HARD to be Peter Cullen. I am also a huge fan of Elita One, and Scarlett Johansson was not my first choice by any means. The one thing giving me hope was the fact that Scarlett and Chris interact SO WELL in their films together and in press releases and they do give off that Orion and Elita energy sometimes. Regardless, I was skeptical.

Now for the big thing: I was very nervous how they were going to handle the politics and the buildup that leads to Megatronus and Orion’s separation. It is no secret that Pre-War Cybertron in many continuities begins with a very corrupt and fascist Senate. Corrupted Senators, capitalistic manipulation and unethical abuse, dehumanization, corporal punishment, you name it, Cybertron had it. The concepts of functionalism, shadowplay, mnemosurgery, and empurata also come to mind. It is also no secret that the United States is on the brink of total fascism. A lot of Pre-War Cybertron’s themes, particularly the Decepticon cause in its early days as a movement, emphasized the elimination of the oppressive regime and reconstruction with an end to the very infrastructure that caused class division and brutalization of Cybertronian bodies. Not only this, but Megatronus and Orion’s schism often comes because of class, particularly privilege and lack thereof, which is something that often happens in revolution. Those with more privilege often think that reform can happen underneath the system that looms over them, just with a switching of a guard and elimination of a few policies. They are often ones who partook in and benefitted from the system by birth or for the sake of survival. Those who come from the lower classes want to burn the entire system down, understanding in its entirety that its very infrastructure is unstable and is not sustainable, no matter who is in power. Examples of this divide despite deep friendship and similar ideas is Andres Bonifacio and Jose Rizal of the Philippines (as a Filipino). Orion, in most cases coming from a privileged background, saw hope in simple reform after extracting the corrupt portions of the federal structure. Megatronus, who fought his whole life to be deemed as sentient, understood that the entire system was diseased and could not go on. It would just eventually continue its horrid practices. I can go on a tangent about this, as someone who studies and writes on anti-colonialism, but that’s another post for another day. My concern based on the trailers was that it would address NONE of that and there would be some watered down conflict that removed the nuances and political passion behind a lot of other continuities. The trailers, to me, were not giving me enough proof that it would be handled correctly.

Initial Experience

My theater was filled with mostly adults of various ages who were fans of different continuities. Some people were even talking about how they thought the movie was going to suck, including me with my dad, who has been a fan since G1 in the 80s and was going in blind. However, throughout the entire film, the whole theater was laughing, gasping, cheering, clapping, and screaming. Afterwards, there were people who were literally talking about how it was the movie they’d been waiting for after years of disappointment. Someone literally shouted when leaving the theater that he was so excited for September when everyone else could see it. My dad, who has not been a fan of recent Transformers material, talked nonstop about how much he loved it. Me personally, I was BRIMMING with excitement afterwards, which is huge given that I was ready to criticize the movie’s every move. Let me get into why- note this is SPOILER FREE.

Orion Pax

Believe it or not, I really liked TF1’s Orion. He was witty, had the snark of Aligned Orion, and clearly had a goal in mind: to entirely shift the status quo by breaking the class distinction. He was extremely optimistic like most versions, something that is often criticized in the fanbase, and is also criticized in the film. However, the qualities that G1 created and the Bayverse destroyed were THERE. Orion was a DORK. He was KIND. He CARED for people deeply, even if they weren’t necessarily thinking about him. He was a KNOWN PROBLEM-SOLVER. His intelligence is noted MULTIPLE times. He really is authentically Orion. I’ll do a more in-depth analysis in September.

Megatronus/ D-16

Now, THIS MAN WAS AMAZING. I am so used to the source of his anger being solely lower class-based oppression amongst other things relating to that. The film offered another option, which I will not disclose, but I thought it was a wonderful addition. I will keep my mouth shut about D-16’s personality in this film because it’s a secret, but just know this new take on Megatronus was a bit refreshing and gives new material for both fan continuity writers and fanfic writers.

Elita

I was honestly scared to see how they would portray Elita, especially with their track record of solely making her Optimus’s love interest and killing her off. I also was afraid that they would turn her into a white feminism caricature, which I can go into depth about for clarification if anyone needs it. However, the writers take feminism for Elita and take a much more in-depth route. I found her well done. She was giving mother in this film, absolutely brilliant. There will be an analysis on her as well in September, especially since they have so much intended room for her.

Worldbuilding and Additional Characters

I think that with about an hour and a half, it would have been SO HARD to create an entire world of deep political brutality and nuance like the comics directly. So, I think the writers created a framework that was good enough to convey the fascist undertones of Cybertron while also leaving so many avenues to explore and elaborate on for future films, whether they be prequels or sequels. Some characters were added in with a bit of context, but no in-depth explanations. While I would normally say that’s a downside, I think that it was actually really smart on their part. If you tried to add all of these complex stories from the comics in an hour and a half film combined with everything else, it would have likely been underdeveloped and left more questions and holes than answers. By removing that, I think that it was a smart move to expand on in their own time and with good pacing. Besides, the presence of some characters was very enjoyable and kept the audience I was with wanting more from them. Not in a “there wasn’t enough of them” way at all, but instead a “they were so cool in the short time they were here I need more now” way. Everyone in this continuity gets a new and different start. I honestly think it would give fan continuity writers motivation to continue what they’re doing, now that basic and consistent pre-war plot lines have been redone. I think for how long the movie is, they did a great job.

Additional Thoughts

I think that everything was pretty well done. The pacing was especially important, given we were supposed to witness a buildup in such a devastating “divorce”. That isn’t done lightly, and they made sure that they built it up enough to where the final blow was devastating. It was SO DEVASTATING that people in my theater were gasping left and right. The comedy was well done, as someone who hates poorly-written jokes for laughs. It fit into the characters’ personalities well, that’s what made it work well. It didn’t feel forced because that’s just how that particular character is. I also think that, as a fandom, sometimes we get too wrapped up in very specific characterizations of these individuals to the point where we refuse new ideas. I was extremely guilty of this. However, this film was truly made by someone that loved the franchise and knew exactly what the fans wanted. Brian Tyler, who did the score for TFP, also doing the score for this film was proof of that (as someone who absolutely ADORES film scores as a musician) There was a good amount of brutality within the rating of the film, so bayverse fans who are itching for something shockingly horrible are in for a surprise. I also think that it knew its boundaries well and moved not to push them while also being considerate of certain audiences who may be a bit younger. It was a good restart, especially for animated Transformers films, and I think that they can really build it into something great. This was a very sound foundation and I was not disappointed.

ALSO, THERE IS A MID AND POST-CREDIT SCENE SO DON’T LEAVE IMMEDIATELY

[princess-glassred]

Todays been awful so fuck it, IT fandom unpopular opinions! (And they're actually unpopular for once!).

-As much as I hate to say this, I think getting mad at people for not liking Mike Hanlon is shifting the blame from who's really at fault for this and that's Andi Muschietti. Yeah it sucks that Mike is always forgotten by this fandom but this fandom is dominated of fans of the movie and the movie and book are totally different. If some 13 year old has only seen the IT movies I don't blame them for not caring about Mike because he got dicked over by Andi's racial bias. And don't say "well they should watch the mini series or book to appreciate him then" as if being in a fandom is supposed to require homework. A lot of people only like IT 2017 and that's fine, and they're not less of a fan for that. It's okay to not like certain members of the losers, as long as your reasons are valid.

-I wish fanfiction would potray Sonia and Eddie's relationship (and honestly Sonia/Myra) with more depth. I am NOT saying Sonia isn't abusive, she absolutely is, but i have seen A LOT of ridiculous portrayals of Sonia and it bugs me. Even good fic writers often pigeon hole her relationship with Eddie to just being him secretly hating every thing about her with no complicated feelings at all. As someone who grew up in an abusive household, majority of abusive relationships aren't like that. That's why abusive relationships are so sinister in the first place, they're hard to get out of because you convince yourself you love your abuser. Most kids, especially heavily manipulated ones like Eddie, would struggle with feeling pure hatred for their mother. And that's interesting! I wanna see that portrayed in Eddie's character, especially since he struggles with his own identity and feelings about himself quite a lot already. If you cannot handle a portrayal of an abusive relationship being more than just two dimensional awfullness 24/7, i don't think you should be reading something as heavy as IT.

-Similarly, the way people talk about Sonia, Myra, and to a lesser extent Belch is really gross. IT actually condemns fatphobia in the narrative by having Henry attack ben, and i see people complain all the time about how ben lost wait as an adult but suddenly when it's Myra, Sonia and Belch you can fat shame to your hearts content. I have seen so many posts from people, either roleplay accounts or otherwise, calling these three fat bitches or hogs or even fanfics that deliberatly use Sonia's weight as short hand for her being terrible instesd of letting her actions speak for herself. Fat shaming isn't suddenly cool when it happens to someone you hate. Molly Ranson is a real person and that is her real body, there are probably people in this fandom who even LOOK like Sonia out there. This also applies to insulting the appearance of any other actor btw.

-I think Ben Hanscom in the it 2017 continuity is honestly kind of a creep. He kisses Bev while she's unconcious depsite not actually knowing if it'll pull her out of the deadlights (he didn't even have a reason to think it would work at all), he holds onto her yearbook signature in his wallet for 27 years even tho he literally forgot everything, spends most of IT chapter 2 coping and seething that Bev isn't attracted to him, and never says anything to defend her from Richie spreading slutty rumors about her. The only time he defends her from slut accusations is when its henry and shes there to see him do it. If Henry did any of this you guys would be all over him, but because it's Ben and they play sappy music over it it's suddenly cute and whimsical.

-I also think Richie gets away with a lot of shit that if it was done by any of the antagonists the fandom would rip 'em to shreds. People give me shit all the time for sympathizing with Henry Bowers becaude he's racist and mysoginistic but Richie says many mysoginistic and racist things across adaptations and nobody cares. Of course he spreads rumors about Bevs promiscuity, but in the book he does quite a few racist impressions and bits like when he says "You know the worst part about getting AIDS? Trying to explain to your mother that you got it from a Haitian girl.". Hell, at least Henry is 12, practically groomed into it, and so mushy brained from the pills he can't think straight, what's richies excuse? I don't even care that Richie is gay, does being in the closet justify anything? Did being attracted to Henry absolve Patrick of the fact he killed a baby? No? The same goes for Richie. Ofc you can still like him, but i don't like it when richie fans act like he's all pure and ignore his worse moments just to grand stand.

-It 2017 is actually just as ewwy towards minors as the book. Just because you removed a gang bang scene doesn't mean you aren't still weird with minors. Mr. Muschietti still thought it was appropriate to make a scene where young Bev is forced to flirt with a pedo pharmacist, another where she gets kissed unconscious, and one where her friends oggle her in a bra. Yeah it's cool you got rid of the sewer stuff but WHY ADD ALL OF THAT IN.

-The whole "omg what if the ritual was going to work but richie had to sacrifice eddie as his token instead and thats why it didnt work" is kinda dumb. it implies that the native americans who created the god damn artifact couldn't do the ritual right but these random white guys could all along. The movie straight up says the ritual has never worked and Mike saying he believed it would work because of their connection is treated like it's wrong. Maybe Eddie was Richies token but I don't think that's why they defeated IT and I also don't think it would have worked to begin with.

[elaratyrell]

Please Be Kind

As the release for hotd season 2 comes closer, please remember, the actors are not the characters they portray

Tom is not Aegon. He’s not a rapist, he’s not an alcoholic. He’s a real person who, from what I’ve seen and heard, is incredibly smart, charismatic, kind and funny

Matt is not Daemon. He’s not a groomer, he’s not an abuser. He’s a real person who seems talented, humorous, and good-hearted

Olivia is not Alicent. She’s not a usurper, she’s not a “cunt”. She’s a real person who seems incredibly sweet, warm and loving

Ewan is not Aemond. He’s not a cold murderer. He’s a real person who seems incredibly passionate, charming and intelligent

Fabien is not Criston. He’s not a killer or a “misogynist”. He’s a real person who seems hilarious, good natured and fun

I put “misogynist” and “cunt” in “” because I don’t personally think Criston and Alicent are those things

I could go on and on about each and every one of these cast members and how they aren’t their characters. It seems stupid that I should have to given it’s a FICTIONAL SHOW.

If the actors are compelling you with their performance and are making you feel strongly about their character, THEY ARE DOING THEIR JOB.

It’s gotten to the point where people saying on this site

“Tom’s outfit sucks.”

“Ewan looks shit.”

(actual posts I’ve read)

Has just made me think: why can’t you be kinder.

You can dislike an outfit choice or hairstyle, but choose kinder tones of phrase

You can dislike a character, but don’t direct your negative opinion to the person who plays them

Saying you’re disgusted Ewan is apparently gay because Davey referred to him as his “darling boy”. For one, why are we speculating? It’s not our business what his sexuality is. For two, so what if he is? Love is love, let him be who he is as a person. Support him in his privacy please.

Why can’t we just enjoy these incredibly talented actors and their performances?

Why can’t we rant and celebrate this messed up show without the fear of being accused of being a rape supporter, a groomer or misogynist, just because we enjoy certain characters?

No character in this show is 100% good. That’s what makes it so compelling.

It’s a war between the morally grey.

Please learn from the mistakes the fan base made in season 1, and that it’s continued to do so during this press tour

Please do better

There’s a reason why so many people who enjoy this show hate contributing to the fanbase

There’s a reason why so many of the actors don’t handle their own socials anymore

Please. Be. Kind.

[utilitycaster]

I saw you reply to an ask saying Tiberius player sucks, but I never saw anything about conflict between the cast. Granted I didn’t join until campaign 2, so did something happen to make them kick him out?

I'm going to link the iconic r/hobbydrama post because I think it's genuinely excellently written and a thorough rundown, and please note that I also started with Campaign 2 so this is mostly secondhand for me. The tl;dr is that the actor for Tiberius immediately began hogging the spotlight inappropriately, avoiding things that might put Tiberius at risk thus screwing over everyone else, cheating on dice to make his character seem cooler, and ultimately in the course of one episode dominated the conversation and tried to bypass a core aspect of Percy's arc and said something sexually inappropriate in-character regarding Vex, Laura's character. He left not long after. If you watch the early C1 episodes it's very much stated as him needing to leave for personal reasons (he was also I believe legitimately dealing with some health issues), but it became clear later he'd been asked to leave.

It later came out that the actor had been hostile a few times while on the show towards fans in inappropriate ways, was frequently hostile and abusive towards many people afterwards, and stole and scammed from his own crowdfunding and employees regarding a spinoff of Tiberius's adventures.

For a bit of background, the vibe when I started Campaign 2, at least while avoiding most of social media, was pretty neutral even though Matt had definitely said some stuff that indicated this had gone badly, and TVTropes (look, I was trying to avoid spoilers and at the time it had episode-by-episode updates) honestly seemed to have been written by fans of Tiberius and was pretty sympathetic towards him. If you're not experienced with D&D or are listening by podcast it is hard to tell how bad things were until episode 27 (his final one and the one where the conflict is really apparent), especially if you have no other baseline for the cast. Tiberius's heroic death that comes out in 1x64 was, I believe, arranged by Matt to be fairly respectful, and coupled with the cast's requests to respect everyone's privacy I think it just wasn't much of a point of discussion during C1, though I could be wrong. The crowdfunding scam news came out right when C2 was in its early episodes, and I think that's when the fandom started to become more aware.

Anyway if you watch early C1, I think it is worth it despite him (and honestly while the actor sucks the character was a good concept and would have had immense potential in the hands of someone who was an honest and generous D&D player, particularly if the fall of Draconia was pre-planned even before his departure), but as many other people have said, if you haven't seen episode 1x27 you do not know what the cast looks like when they're actually fucking angry at someone. Like even when they've been upset with each other it's been a "talk it out" situation, rather than that.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

one piece live action thoughts?

It looks very much like a live action adaptation of One Piece. For better, and very much also for worse.

I mean this in the sense that it's adapted to fit a form that helps it make sense 1) in live action and 2) to a general audience which isn't intimately familiar with manga or anime, and which a broadcaster or streaming service would want to reach.

Luffy especially, at least going by the relatively tiny snippet we have seen so far, seems to have had some of his more peculiar edges sanded off to fit more comfortably into the mold of a typical young adult protagonist, which includes the... I guess what people call "marvel speak" now? The little funny quips and asides and ironic saying-the-obvious-thing-out-loud beats, which are more Americanisms than Marvel specific but I digress.

In One Piece, Luffy is most often not the point of view character, especially early on. Luffy is usually observed from outside by other characters - Koby serves this role in the early chapters, and from then on usually we see Luffy through his crew, or through whatever secondary characters they're interacting with in that particular arc.

People have observed this before, but in the manga, we essentially NEVER get any internal monologue from Luffy, he always either SAYS what he's thinking, or he runs on head empty no thoughts just vibes instinct and gut reaction.

And that... probably doesn't really work with a typical young adult protagonist. If adapted faithfully to screen, I think a lot of audiences would read him as just a reckless, inconsiderate and kinda heartless asshole, because a framing and presentation of Luffy that makes sense in a manga or anime just doesn't read the same in live action filmmaking.

Like, One Piece opens with Luffy recklessly sailing off to sea despite having no idea how to sail, getting sucked into a whirlpool and surviving on sheer dumb luck, getting picked up by some pirates in a barrel. Then he meets an abused child named Koby who has been getting the shit kicked out of him daily for months and immediately calls him a clumsy, stupid, cowardly worthless loser to his face and laughs at him.

Like, if you adapted that faithfully, how would that come across to a general audience? Imagine this scene staged in live-action, with human actors having to portray this conversation rather than stylized cartoon people. It simply wouldn't come across the same way, Luffy would come across as an It's Always Sunny character at best. Why would a general audience sympathize with him? Why would they find him compelling or worth investing emotionally in?

And I'm not saying there aren't ways to adapt One Piece faithfully into live action, there absolutely are (much like the manga, I would make everyone ELSE the point-of-view characters looking AT Luffy rather than try and present him as a Likeable Protagonist, for example).

My point is just that in any translation into live action, there are going to be concessions to the medium, there are going to be concessions to film language, concessions to audience expectations, concessions to the market conditions, concessions to the studio funding the filming, and so on. That's just the nature of the endeavour.

When it's done well, you get an adaptation that preserves the spirit of the thing while fitting its medium. Lord of the Rings comes to mind, an adaptation which changed huge amounts from its source material, but preserved the spirit.

When it's done poorly you get... well, Cowboy Bebop on Netflix.

I don't know from the tiny trailer snippet we've seen whether this show will preserve the spirit of One Piece, it very well may not, and end up another victim on the pile of bad anime adaptations. But I don't think the fact that it changed the vibe of the characters or Main Character'd Luffy alone are reasons to dismiss it, at least not yet. Those might have been necessary concessions for the show to work in live action at all. We shall see.

I'm not super optimistic or excited (because, again, I remember Cowboy Bebop), but I'm not despairing of it yet either.

[ask-house-of-suns-au]

Some Fun headcanon facts about Dark Sun.

- He is just a 'normal' Sun.

- He also looks just like a normal Sun, just extra coats and extra ribbons.

- His left eye is horrible because it is where he upgraded his intelligence the first time (It was an excruciating experience.) and that also partly the reason why he wears glasses.

- There is not a single thought not related to murder inside his eyes.

- He is the Batman. People think Dark Sun's intelligence is the most dangerous part of him but actually it is Dark Sun's preparation. He not only has tons of backup plans and plans, but also, he knows people. He knows even if he is the smartest, someone will be smarter than him, have luck on their side better than him.

- He has a bad habit of hiding one of his hands behind his back, just in case something goes bad.

- He loves to pretend he is just a weak dumb Sun to fool Eclipse and Abused Moon, and stab right on their back when they lowered their guard.

- There is nothing more satisfying to him (he will not be admitted to it) more than seeing Eclipse or Moon or everyone has hurt him and variant of Sun begging at their knees because they had failed and they were wrong.

- He doesn't actually hate Servant. He just hates things that get out of his plans, and seeing Servant refuses to die while back then succumbing to Lord Eclipse makes he feel a little bit angry, even though he knows Servant didn't have any choices.

He secretly pitied Servant but also he thinks there is no point of fixing them and it is better if they just die. Rather than living like an almalgamon of Eclipse and Sun. A husk of someone has been gone for so long.

- He used to have a really complicated relationship with Sundrop but then they split up and agreed to never have a word about it never again.

- He can change his eyes colour, from white pearl to red because he usually robbed from Moons and it is easier to let them mistake him as their Sun. (it is also easier to kill them.)

- He and Sun have the same way of dealing with people who don't listen or just simply being idiot. He will ask them if they know where they went wrong and make them admit their mistakes. If Sun only does this when he is angry or when they have crossed the line, then Dark Sun does it a lot because he likes the way he makes people feel like they are stupid.

- He is a sadistic person. Not only does he want people he hates to kneel down to him in pain, he also wants to look at their eyes and see how much they hate him but couldn't do anything because they are stuck inside his palm.

- He sucks at playing games. He is also a salty loser, which makes him never play the game he loses ever again.

- He is actually a decent person when he isn't scheming or planning about everything.

- He thinks of SunBOT as a kid he never wants but still has. Having said that, never let SunBOT and Dark Sun alone together unless you want to see something for shit uncontrollably.

- He likes dolls, puppies and everything soft. The reason why he wears his jacket is because he wants something soft and warm to cover him and also he likes being cute. (Secretly)

- He has a very long long name for his dragon before changing it back to some nickname that is shorter than Sun's relationship.

- He likes wine, the expensive one. His hobby when he didn't think about how to fuck over Moon's life is just sitting around his Dragon and petting it while reading a book.

- He is a very good actor, he and Cringe Sun. Sun is the third place, and Sunny is the fourth.

- He is lonely. And he is terrified of what he did might be wrong but he just keeps going forward and never looks back.

- He still has nightmares and hallucinations but he never lets it affect him.

- Sometime he will be too much unhinged even for himself, especially around Sun or Servant. Which makes him have to go isolate himself for a while before getting back to normal unhinged.

- He doesn't want to hurt people who didn't deserve it but he will not hesitate to put some lessons for them to not fuck with him anymore.

- He likes cooking, but his cooking is terrible.

[razielim]

You've been hired as casting director for a new Legacy of Kain sequel/remake. None of the original cast is available for whatever reason, but every other living actor on the planet has some free space in their schedule. How do you use and/or abuse this power?

Why would you do this to me? I'm such a purist, I can't have ANY fun with this; I must be as Objectively Correct as possible or I will DIE.

Well, it so happens the late Tony Jay is already unable to reprise his role for obvious reasons, so let's start there. My first thought was James Earl Jones, but apparently I missed/forgot the news that he had also passed, though giving him a listen, his voice would not have been resonant enough even at his lowest Vader/Mufasa pitch anyway. Then I remembered Smaug so I pinched my nose and gave Benedict Cumberbatch an audition. That was supremely disappointing. This guy's voice isn't deep at all! I would put Ralph Ineson down as my first choice of everyone I've listened to!

Simon Templeman is crying, shaking, foaming at the mouth about your ask and the notion that he wouldn't be involved as Kain in a sequel or remake, but! I have an easy answer for this! Hugh Grant. These are the tiniest little soundbites, but check out this video at 0:47 and 1:58 - he'd be really darn close! And I think he'd genuinely have a lot of fun with it, which is an absolutely necessary component for this character. As a backup, I'd audition Hugh Laurie.

Raziel is honestly very difficult to cast with the internet as my only casting resource because there was such a... breathy (?) affect to the voice Michael Bell used for him. That's just NOT at all what Michael Bell normally sounds like.

And honestly, a lot of these VA guys, right, like? They try many different voices, caricatures, qualities and blend those to get a particular character down. Versus a lot of screen actors who move into VA work and sound like themselves. And unfortunately I don't know many VAs by name or even by role to give very many a listen, but I definitely think that a great actor, voice or screen, could give multiple very different performances and even if it's not what you expect from that person's voice, some takes will come shockingly close to exactly what you asked of them, and some will be so fresh that it's worth hiring them even if it's not exactly what you'd had in mind.

But back to Raziel. I would like to bring Viggo Mortensen in for an audition. I'm definitely liking what I'm hearing.

Willem THE FOE for Moebius.

I don't care about Janos. Bring in whoever you got; I'll give them a listen. But I'll kick out anyone who gives me that stupid "I vant to suck your blood!" Transylvanian shtick. I'm not that much of a purist.

Paul Lukather's also passed away and his Vorador's been really difficult to find a good match for. The closest I've come is Jason Isaacs, but I'd have to make sure we're on the same page and he's aware that Vorador has a sort of subtle comedic timing to the way he talks. I think he'd nail it once given that direction! But I'd also have him do some lines for Kain to see how he does in that role against the Hughs. And if Isaacs doesn't work out for Vorador, I'd definitely want to look at actors known for their comedy, but give them the opposite direction of being careful not to make Vorador too funny. Vorador is amused my his own speeches and it shows, but he's not necessarily amusing to others, which is a finicky characterization that makes him difficult to cast without a real audition.

Finally, I don't know who to cast him as quite yet but I'm dragging Jeremy Irons onto this project.

[polycule-playoff]

A3! vs NU Carnival

Descriptions Under The Cut:

A3!:

"Fuyupoly is the ship between the 6 members of Winter Troupe! They canonically describe their relationship in a way that "sounds like marriage" according to someone who hears them!!! They're together in sickness and health, bound by a common destiny… All of them have different reasons for joining Winter Troupe, all with their own emotional walls, but together they're bringing those walls down together. They're all adults who are unused to getting close to each other, but they save each other over and over with their compassion and love for each other. You CAN separate them into pairs, but imo they really aren't complete without all 6 of them! Though the final member, Guy, joins after the marriage happens, he's deeply important to all of them just the same <3 Winter Troupe marriage is REAL <3"

"The Winter Troupe (or "Fuyugumi" in Japanese, which is why we call them "Fuyupoly" (ie Winter Poly)) started out mostly as strangers who were desperate to find a home and a way to create new connections despite their fear of commitment holding them back, and they found it with one another.

Tsumugi and Tasuku were childhood friends who had a fall out and had to learn to live with each other again when they joined the Troupe, while the rest were all a group of strangers.

Tsumugi is the leader of the Winter Troupe. Calm and reserved, with a teaseful edge, he also has major self esteem issues and an imposter syndrome despite being the most talented actor in the company.

Tasuku used to be a top actor in a bigger company, and was absolutely sick of the spotlight, so now he dedicates himself at being the perfect support for the people around him. He sucks at showing off his own feelings, and originally only Tsumugi knew how to interpret him, but now the whole Winter Troupe knows how to deal with him despite it causing troubles originally.

Hisoka is an amnesiac sleepy guy they found in the street and gave a home to for the time his memories return to him. Originally extremely apathetic to everyone, preferring to sleep than befriending any of them, he slowly opened up to everyone and started to vow to protect them, despite being absolutely terrified of his past coming back to haunt him and hurt the people he now came to love. He defines every members of his troupe as pillows.

Homare is a poet and artist who is constantly making poems about the people around him. He cares extremely deeply for them, but he has very low empathy, which caused issues and hurt everyone when he wanted to help them and failed to understand why they were suffering. After making his situation clear, everyone understood Homare was doing everything to help out of love, and they've been making sure Homare knows that it doesn't mean he's broken, like Homare had said he was.

Azuma is a cuddle therapist, who sleeps with people and listens to their woes at night, mostly so he doesn't have to be alone at night, else he has panic attacks. Struck by grief at a young age he has kept everyone at a safe distance from him to not get hurt again, but is extremely emotionally starved and is seeking for connections anywhere he can, while also freaking out everytime people get too close, which can led him so self sabotage and self isolation. He's extremely gentle and understanding, and loves to cuddle with everyone in his troupe. Because he often has relapses when he's alone at night, his troupe often organizes sleepovers just to cuddle around him at night to remind him he's not alone.

Guy is the royal attendant of a Prince character who's in the Spring Troupe. He believed himself to be an android for most of his life after being extremely emotionally abused by his step father who called his lack of expressiveness a robot trait. He's emotionally stunned and has trouble processing his emotions until the Winter Troupe worked their way in trying to help him out.

Guy joined the troupe one year after its formation and his arc was especially insightful because it challenged everything the Winter Troupe has learnt about one another and dealt with for one another.

See, for this whole year the Winter Troupe worked in trying to lower their own walls in order to let each other in, and learned about one another. We had stories about how Homare saw himself as a broken robot that took the whole troupe, prompted by Hisoka, to reassure him they love him just that way, or Azuma having a relapse and the whole troupe, prompted by Tasuku, to find him and impose themselves to him so he would never be alone ever again.

Hisoka's past was revealed, and it did come with a major danger to the Winter Troupe. Hisoka was completely panicked, until his troupe came to him and they said "Just how heavy is that sin you bear?" "With little luck it'll be enough for the 5 of us to carry together.". It allowed Hisoka to face the horrors of his past and make sure to put all of his strength in protecting his precious Troupe now.

So when Guy arrived to them: unable to express his emotions (like Tasuku), believing himself to be an android (similar to Homare), not having any memories of his childhood (like Hisoka), having panic attacks at night (like Azuma), and eventually self esteem issues (like Tsumugi), everything the Winter Troupe had to learn with deal with one another ended up being useful to them when they teamed up to help Guy through his traumas.

I could detail each pairs of the poly and why they matter so much - Tsumugi and Tasuku childhood friends to lover, Homare and Hisoka that has Homare being extremely protective of him while Hisoka finds safety and comfort around Homare even if he brushes it off as being annoyed, Azuma and Guy being more mellow adults and traumatized - Tasuku and Azuma having started on a very bad ground until Tasuku devoted himself so hard in reading every bit of Azuma's expression so he can catch when he's getting depressed to be here for him so much so Tasuku is the only person who saw Azuma completely crumble out of grief, Hisoka being extremely overprotective of Azuma, Homare constantly singing praises of Azuma's beauty, and so so much more for each duos.

But ultimately what makes this polycule precious is how they're constantly a team when it comes to one another. For each duo that gets in focus, we always get a scene that follows up of the whole Troupe joining in and getting invested in making sure their troupe's mates are healing and happy. They started out feeling it difficult to talk to one another, to lower their walls around each other, because they're all adult and have the impulse to be polite before being sincere, and it made them all so lonely. But they decided that being with one another was worth lowering all of those walls. It was worth learning to be vulnerable again.

Each troupe of the company explicitly see each other as a specific dynamic: The Spring Troupe is Family, the Summer Troupe is First Close Friends, the Autumn Troupes are Companions in arms. But Winter has explicitly been about being Soulmates, it's about learning to open up to one another, to heal together, all together.

Leaving it with a song they sang all together about their dynamic with one another: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LwiYkh_BV4"

NU Carnival:

"Short version: CANON POLYCULE. And it's non-hierarchical! Canon non-hierarchical polycule!!! They're SO important to me. The game is a harem genre kind of thing but there's none of the jealousy and infighting that implies; at worst there's some frenemy dynamics because one guy is kind of a dickhead, and that's totally unrelated to the polyamory. The singular dickhead aside, everyone works so hard to support each other and lift each other up!! I love them!!!

Long version: BUCKLE IN. IT'S LONG.

NuCa is a BL porn game and so Eiden, the main character, has sex on-screen with all the other listed characters. If we're going by an extremely strict interpretation of canon, they aren't explicitly dating, in the sense that they don't sit down and verbally agree that they're romantically dating. However, anyone with a lick of sense and a smidge of media literacy will tell you that they're obviously romantic. In particular, Eiden's scenes with Yakumo, Edmond, Quincy, Kuya, Blade, and Dante often feel like direct reenactments of romance novel scenes. Eiden straight up roleplays as Dante's bride in a sex scene.

Of the remaining characters (Olivine, Garu, Rei, Aster, and Morvay), Eiden/Olivine is likely intended to be read as romantic, though they're a bit less romance-novel than the other Eiden ships. I personally prefer to headcanon them as queerplatonic, but submitted them as romantic because that seems to be the writers' intention. Eiden/Garu I personally don't consider romantic but someone else could reasonably read them as such, and Garu most definitely has a special level of devotion to Eiden; Garu calls Eiden his Master. Rei is a relatively new character (NuCa is also a gacha game) and so there's not yet enough material by which to judge Eiden and Rei's relationship; I submitted them as queerplatonic for simplicity's sake. Aster and Morvay have a deep devotion towards Eiden. They're familiars and, like Garu, they call him Master. It's something like a master/servant dynamic but they choose to stay with him out of their own free will.

For all Eiden ships, both romantic and queerplatonic, Eiden is central to each of their character arcs. In return, Eiden also gains a lot of emotional support from being in a found family polycule situation; he was an orphan and had no family, no close friends, and a slew of failed relationships prior to meeting the game's cast. Eiden used to be incredibly lonely and now he no longer is.

For non-Eiden ships with strong canonical basis, Quincy and Kuya have some kind of hundred-year situationship going on. They hate each other but they're also deeply connected to each other. 99% of the fandom agrees that they're twice married thrice divorced. Toxic old man yaoi.

Morvay and Aster also have something going on, as the only pairing that canonically has sex without Eiden involved. The exact nature of their relationship is also complicated and ambiguous, but I would describe it as straddling the line of romantic/queerplatonic/familial (submitted as married for simplicity's sake). I and others have called them husbands before. They're familiars, i.e. they were created by a sorcerer, and Morvay was quite literally made for Aster in the sense that Morvay only exists because Aster begged his original creator for a companion.

For everyone else, they're mostly canonically friends and any romantic/sexual subtext is weaker than the aforementioned ships. (Mostly friends, because some of them are more like frenemies.) I took the liberty of submitting some romantic/queerplatonic ships that are either extremely popular in the fandom or that I personally headcanon as such.

Special mentions:

Olivine/Morvay: Olivine is a priest, while Morvay is an incubus. Despite being so opposed on the surface, they're canonically great friends and go shopping for aphrodisiacs together. They're also both SUPER horny, super submissive, and both love sucking cock. Opposites on the surface but extremely similar deep down.

Edmond/Olivine: in a porn game where everyone is absolutely raring to bone down at the slightest excuse, these two are extremely well-behaved and polite lads who would have the most comically slow-burn, chaste regency romance. They would blush like virgins when their hands touch and then get fucked silly by Eiden later the same day. Edmond's even a noble and the game's world canonically has a social season.

Yakumo/Quincy: a rarepair in the overall fandom, but they're SO popular specifically on NuCa tumblr. quincamo nation where we at

Kuya/Olivine: not one I submitted as romantic or queerplatonic, because they're honestly more like. Frenemies with benefits. My friend coined milf-on-milf violence for them and slowly but surely it's been spreading throughout the fandom.

Blade & Garu: they're jam pie buddies… Jam pie being a cute mispronunciation of standby. It refers to the pre-canon period where they both spent years in an uninhabitable area waiting for their special someone, and since they were waiting anyway, might as well wait together. Their friendship is soooooo cute."

"Additional update to the previous submission: Garu and Karu are a system, and are commonly referred to as brothers by fans (and I believe there's one in-game instance of one of them calling the other a brother?) Who's fronting is denoted to players by eye color - blue eyes for Garu and gold eyes for Karu. The game's structure (event appearances, etc) treats them as one character so I previously didn't submit them separately for fear of making things too complicated, but then I felt bad about leaving Karu out so I'm adding him in now.

also look at The Chart (though its Aster/Morvay take has since been disproven by canon): https://www.tumblr.com/zerenovation/723328410773028864/in-case-youre-wondering-how-my-best-friend-and-i?source=share

man,, NuCa is just like. SUCH a good depiction of polyamory and relationship anarchy. Like I can't do it justice by just describing it, you have to see it to believe that a BL porn gacha genuinely does polyamory very very well. Canon polycule in my gacha game, more likely than you think. There's a good argument for headcanoning every relationship as romantic, but I think that's a boring way to simplify the polycule. They're so complicated and so horny and I love them for it."

[stubarf]

Headcanons/Info abt Matthew Patel and Keith Lief (self-insert/OC)!

ship name: DramaQueen

emoji combo: 🎭🌈

(I apologize if I get anything wrong)

Matthew Patel HCs (24 y/o, he/him)

Was raised in the USA but his parents are from Bangladesh

Is fluent in bangla (bengali)

daddy issues, that's why he's GAY /j

no but fr his father cheated on his wife with some chick, his mother has not recovered since

neither has Matthew he was like fucking 14 when this happened

anyways he was in drama club in high school and always got bit parts like "side character 5" or "tree 2"

was always salty about it

reasonable crashout

he loves reading, HATES writing

MCR fan all the way you will not change my mind

and Evanescence too

probably had a goth phase

questioned his gender for a little bit

but turns out hes just a bisexual cis man

good for him

he was also bullied relentlessly

made him turn to not so good coping mechanisms

I'll elaborate later

had too many piercings as a teen

they're all healed now, unfortunately

neurodivergent, not entirely sure what

maybe autism??

he definitely has abandonment issues, attachment issues, insecurities, and intrusive thoughts though

someone hug him please

i KNOW he has some sort of complex i need to FIGURE IT OUT

⊹ 𓂃 ʚ　✦ ◞　꒰ 🎭 ꒱　◟ ✦　ɞ 𓂃 ⊹

Keith Lief Info (23 y/o, he/it)

raised in Norway for a little bit, completely forgotten his language as soon as he stepped foot in America

somehow knows Latin and Bangla?????? idk

scene king if that wasn't obvious enough

had blue hair and pronouns in high school

has always been scene he will never stop

was in the same drama club as Matthew but he wasn't an actor he was a set designer

he's actually really good at it

also was bullied relentlessly

also has horrible coping skills

loves writing and reading

likes all kinds of music except pop

had all the phases. we don't speak of them.

took him a little bit but he figured out he was a transmasc androgynous gay man

might change though idk

has too many piercings for an adult

unreasonable crashout

he will get upset over ANYTHING

that might be because hes autistic or because of his BPD

either way holy shit

unemployed at the moment, but he is searching (lies)

his parents SUCK.

his mother is a guilt tripping childish "woke" bitch with bipolar disorder and his father is a physically abusive narcissistic absent piece of shit conservative with ptsd

okay maybe im projecting too much but you get the gist

ahem

anyways

⊹ 𓂃 ʚ　✦ ◞　꒰ 🌈 ꒱　◟ ✦　ɞ 𓂃 ⊹

DramaQueen Info

okay so i have two different stories for how they met but I'm gonna focus on SPTO so

they met on the set of the musical, Keith was the set designer and Matthew was, y'know, the star

they didn't talk much during the making and preparation, but after the musical, specifically at the after-party, is when they began talking more

and more..

okay they kissed at the party

sparks happened.

they didn't talk much in high school, but Matthew did have a major crush on him

Keith knew Matthew but never noticed the crush thing

oblivious FUCK

sorry anyways after the kiss they went on a walk together and talked about it and wanted to see how they felt

they agreed upon trying the dating thing out and as soon as their first date ended they both knew they were in love

but they were both too scared to say it (Keith said it first)

that's all i really got so far for then

i will take questions (if no one asks me about them i will kill a hostage)

[trainchomp]

Harry did Dexter so dirty. He took a troubled boy with mental health and emotional regulation issues, did not get him the help he needed, and instead pushed him towards harmful behaviors and forced him to hide from everyone in his life including his mother and sister. And then, when confronted with the consequences of his own actions, Harry kills himself, leaving Dexter alone with mountains of trauma and a huge, terrible secret that he’s not allowed to tell anyone because his father instilled in him this deep seated fear that he is, at his core, unlovable. What a horrible thing to teach your child.

And Dexter wants help, he tries to get help. He goes to NA, he tries to find god, he confides in his sister. Until there’s a little roadblock, a little set back, he meets a psycho sponsor and a murderous Christian and he decides there’s no way he’ll get better and he goes back to what he knows how to do. Because it feels good, and even though he knows it’s bad, indulging in the behavior feels better than trying to avoid it, which is painful, and difficult, and it’s just easier not to.

I was really upset when he gave up on NA, I think they really could have helped him. He is addicted to killing. Regardless of who he’s killing or why, it feels good and he wants to keep doing it. He can put up this wall of “i only kill bad guys” and “some people slip through the cracks” except that he regularly goes after people the police are actively trying to catch. Home boy did not “slip through the cracks”, you deliberately hid evidence from the cops in the hopes that you would get to them sooner.

Mostly I just hate Harry because everyone puts him on this pedestal of being a great cop and a good father and not only do we have absolutely 0 evidence of him being a good cop (the only thing they ever actually say about his detective work is that he was sleeping around with a Lot of CIs and never made Lieutenant), we also have 0 evidence of him being a good father! He accepted Dexter’s killing *in theory* but when confronted with it literally chose to kill himself instead of face what he had done, and actively abandoned his other child??? No matter how high one child’s support needs, your other child also has needs and neglecting them is abuse.

And actually, while we’re at it, why do they keep getting rid of characters like they never existed? What happened to the Irish nanny? What happened to the girl Angel was dating before the writers just decided to put him and LaGuerta together for no good reason? Where did they go and could you not have thrown them a line or two of dialogue?? Literally have Dexter say they need to hire Angel’s sister cause the old nanny moved back to Ireland and I’d be happy.

Meanwhile apparently Deborah is in love with Dexter despite us not getting any evidence of this leading up to the moment she realises it and their dynamic changing not at all afterwards.

Why is this show so bad? They had a fantastic premise, some pretty good actors, and I’ve never read the books, but I’ve heard they’re decent. They had everything they needed to make something watchable and they chose to make this instead? It’s so bad I have to wonder if they’re doing it on purpose. Is the whole thing meant to be ironic? are we supposed to understand that despite everyone parroting the opposite, Harry actually sucked? Are we supposed to think critically about Dexter’s actions, or are we just supposed to accept that it’s a good thing that he’s killing killers? Or was no one ever meant to think about this show too hard because it was primarily made for ad slots

[chaosinstigator]

Guillermo Del Toro, Wes Anderson, David Lynch and Natalie Portman also defended Polanski. You should check the whole list of the supporters. Meryl Streep and Whoopi Goldberg did not sign the petition but spoke out in support of Polanski in other ways. And Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet both played main roles in Polanski's 2011 movie Carnage. Timothée Chalamet played a main role in Woody Allen's 2019 movie A Rainy Day in New York despite the fact that Woody Allen is also sexual abuser. The Best Actor Award is not given to a best person. All the people in the Hollywood are fine with working with horrendous people and letting abuse and other shit when fly by (especially if it doesn't affect them personally) until the person's awfulness gets leaked to the public widely enough to gain a massive backlash. Hollywood people think that if someone is a great artist or important figure with big influence that person possibly couldn't be an rapist or assaulter etc. cause somehow being great artist means you can't be a bad person.

Okay? Where did I talk about any of them?

Listen I’m not gonna go into the corruption of Hollywood and the intricacies that you have to navigate in that business in general. These people did horrid things and they should be called out for it, I’ve never said they shouldn’t.

I know Timothee denounced allen and donated or something all the profits made from that film, he still shouldn’t have done it to begin with imo but at least he did something after. The bare minimum obvi but again.

The only reason this is in my inbox is because I called out adrien brody for being an abuse supporter and undeserving of the oscar. I stand by that. He is self entitled and his speech showed exactly how he regards himself the way he told them to cut the music alone was disgusting. Anyways if you wanna suck his dick go right ahead I won’t stop you, maybe he’ll throw the gum at you next lol

[wildgeese98]

Some of my favorite tma episodes that don't get talked about much.

mag 36 Taken Ill: One of the most horrifying Corruption statements ever. First appearance of John Amherst and an early appearance of the Hunt dream team, Trevor and Julia. Also sets up Melanie's father's fate two whole seasons later.

mag 44 Tightrope: first Gertrude statement. Statement giver became a doctor so he could try to understand the Stranger creatures he saw in the "freak show" tent. There's something so horrifying about spending your life trying to understand something you saw as a child, to the point where it influences your career and it just leads you to realize that what you saw can't be explained.

mag 45 Blood Bag: Mosquitos suck all of the blood out of a guy because he sold his lucky syringe, enough said there I think.

mag 52 Exceptional Risk: Something I think Jonny is very good at is writing from the perspective of shitty cops. The statement giver spends the whole time both bragging about and excusing his abuse of the prisoners under his care. He readily admits to using excessive force but has a million reasons why it's necessary. Also it's clear that the system fully allows and encourages it, until they come under any kind of scrutiny of course. He's just such and believable character, awful in such a mundane, true to life way. It's one of those episodes where the the supernatural element is not the most horrifying part by a long shot.

mag 53 Crusader: Love the voice actor for the statement giver, his performance makes an already harrowing story that much more upsetting. The description of the man burning alive inside the tank really got to me. Also introduces the concept of the ancient Archivists which is really fun and I wish had been explored more. Love a shuffling, empty husk that's not allowed to die.

mag 60 The Observer Effect: I am genuinely so afraid of seeing something lurking behind me in my reflection. This one really creeped me out. Really considering what it would be like have something watching you all the time makes my skin crawl. I'm not that surprised she tried to blow up the Institute.

mag 99 Dust To Dust: There's just something about the vibe of this one. The Dust Bowl is such a perfect setting for a Buried statement. All that dirt causing so much destitution and suffering while in turn having been caused by people overworking the land trying to "build their fortunes". Lungs full of dirt is also just such and awful way to die. Also Gertrude mispronouncing Boise always sends me.

mag 113 Breathing Room: Gotta love a Dekker statement. More than on of the End statements manage to hit precisely onto one of my very specific ongoing anxieties. Every couple months I become convinced that there is a carbon monoxide leak in my apartment. I'm also obsessed with the detail that the blood of people of die of carbon monoxide poisoning is cherry red. Plus love that Dekker's solution was straight up just a good old fashioned lobotomy.

mag 123 Web Development: I love when Jonny dips into his old school internet horror roots. Chelicerae really sounds like a creepypasta that an older kid tells you about on the playground. I am also obsessed with a guy who is so much of a pushover that he refuses to stop working for an evil website that turns people into spider monsters because he doesn't want to rock the boat.

mag 148 Extended Surveillance: In retrospect this feels like a Protocol case to me. A guy fusing with the computers and cctv system, yeah I've heard that one before.

mag 183 Monument: It's interesting that this one doesn't get a lot of play because it is essentially the thesis statement on why Smirks 14 was a deeply flawed system and why any attempt at categorizing the Fears will inevitably fail. It's also got some great Helen moments and a very good Jon/Martin conversation at the end.

mag 159 Adrift: Simply for Jon and Basira's conversation.

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s2 episode 14 "die hand die verletzt" thoughts

i just finished the episode and stared at the screen for a bit and then burst into laughter because. what the hell did i just watch?

all i could think of while viewing this episode was that video of brittany broski in epcot sipping on a drink, shaking her head in confusion, and saying "heyyy! what are we doing?"

lmao. okay. so let's start from the top. man hold on i'm giggling again due to how baffled i am. okay i need to Get It Together.

(i assume that those who read this blog are already familiar with this episode so i'm not gonna list TWs and i normally don't feel the need to but we get some... interesting flavors here, like child abuse and antisemitism mention. and to be clear, i am not laughing at those- i am laughing about how utterly confused i am, and how i have no answers to anything, and only more questions than before this episode began)

so the episode title is in german and i had no idea what it meant but it was quickly explained. we'll get to that.

we start at a PTA meeting- a parent-teacher association, arguably the scariest of all settings we have yet encountered. and they're arguing about the school musical. someone wants to do jesus christ superstar (banger show) but they think that is inappropriate so i'm like oh, they're just super christian, and hippie jesus must offend them. and they also shoot down the idea of grease for language so this only reinforces my belief.

they start praying, which was in line with my earlier assumptions, but they're praying to satan. which raises the question: why does satan care if the musical grease says "fuck"?

(but this made the idea of JCS being inappropriate very very funny)

they're chanting the german that the episode is titled, which means "his is the hand that wounds" which tracks i suppose

now we're in the woods of new hampshire, with some teenagers, one of which says this girl's mittens are "giving him a gingrich". so i looked that up thinking it was some sort of 90's slang i was not versed in, but the only result was a reddit post trying to figure out what they meant in that exact episode. which did make me feel justified.

so these teens are being creepy, reciting things at a witch's altar and it looks like the boys are gonna try and be weird with the girls. they're doing some reciting and RATS BE UPON YE.

they're making a break for it, when the lead guy's neck is snapped. and we don't see by who.

enter our agents! the policeman is saying that he KNOWS they listen to that devil music, to which mulder quips, "the night chicago died?", so i had to google THAT too, and its a song about al capone. so i'll look into that i suppose.

policeman is like noooo, it's that evil METAL music

they're examining the altar, and scully asks who he was with, and the policeman says uhh we thought he was by himself? she says well, there's two six packs here, which generally suggests company, and also here's a scrap from a book. why didn't your guys notice this? and i thought this was going to be a plot point, how the cops were overlooking basic details, but they just sucked for no reason lmao

i also made a note that her hair looked really good here. a little wavy. the way i wished my hair looked.

mulder's going on about this place having a weird feeling, which i wish he would elaborate upon, but she's saying nooo, it's nothing, until...

toads fall out of the sky and onto their umbrellas.

YES BABY!!! CAMP TV!!!! TOAD SHOWERS!!!

(also gonna NEED their reactions in gif form at some point because i'm howling)

((and also how did they film that? go to the toad store to pick up some background actors?))

they go to the library to try and trace down who had the book they found the scrap from, and scully's theory is that the toads must have been brought by the tornadoes that were recently in the area. this is a scully approved theory.

they go into the school to try and talk to the surviving boy, who is sitting in science class with a sub, and when they announce they are looking for him the kid tries to jump out the window. but mulder is a track star and grabs his legs before he can fully yeet himself out. and i'm thinking to myself, if the FBI came and grabbed some kid in my science class, i think i would pass out.

our agents pull this kid and the two girls who were there aside for questioning, and the boy says he was just trying to "get some". at the witch's altar. a sick and twisted juvenile.

CUT SCENE to the PTA who say amongst themselves that one of them must have killed the boy, whose name is jerry, but they all deny it. he was killed with his heart and eyes ripped out, which is in line with their practices. so yeah that's suspicious but after that episode of trophy hunting killers, it could be anyone.

but when our agents enter the scene, the PTA say that it must have been the media that brainwashed the kids into satanic killers. and scully is like. if that were the case there would be tens of thousands of murders. and they say "okay so you get the stakes here" which had me howling. "tHe mEdiA iS bRaInWaShInG tHe cHiLdrEn" <- wow this is something i cannot say i have heard in the year of our lord 2024 (/s)

when they walk out of the school, mulder stops to get a drink at a water fountain. which is already funny because that's a grown ass man. when he notices that the water is going down the wrong way for the hemisphere they are in. and i'm laughing because why the HELL does he know which way the water is supposed to go down the drain. like i have never thought of that in my entire life and i guess now i will.

(btw this is never explained. we don't know why the water goes the other way here. witchcraft, i guess)

at this point, i'm thinking, this substitute teacher has to be the killer, and she opens up the drawer of her desk to put away the tests the students were taking, and we see a heart and eyeballs. gasp! i paused the screen here to make note of this revelation and the eyeballs on stalks looked sososo funny. and she just COVERS THEM UP with some papers which i can imagine must have been hard to grade after being soaked in blood.

they take a trip to the school therapist and mulder says boy, there are an awful lot of cases of mental health troubles here. and the doctor says, yes, this is high school. which honestly? i remember high school and yeah. that does track. it was a strange time. but mulder is not pleased with this explanation and expects that it's something deeper

scully went online and found what sounds like a report on the case- a boy killed with his eyes and heart removed- and mulder is like omg where did you get this?

well. i did not see this coming.

she then keeps reading and it is deeply antisemitic. actually allow me to do a verbatim report from the notes here:

"she went online and i was like haha she used this newfangled internet :) AND THEN SHE READS AN ARTICLE CALLING A SIMILAR CASE ACTUAL BLOOD LIBEL?? MY JAW HIT THE FLOOR IN RECORD TIME oh she found it in a Nazi newspaper from 1934... oh my gosh y'all i thought this was going in a VERY different direction"

so i thought that maybe this was framing the murder as an act of religious persecution? but it wasn't. they just threw that in there for... reasons?

mulder explaining wiccan lore... yeah that's a man who has studied religions

at this point, we are back in the science classroom, and the substitute teacher is handing out baby pigs. OUGH. i am so glad i never had to do that in school.

this poor girl is about to cut into the pig and she looks like she is going to be sick, which is in all honesty exactly what i would have been doing, but then she starts screaming and seeing things like the pig moving??? and squeaking???

she runs to the office, where the agents are serving looks in a corner, and she's told her dad is gonna come get her, but she runs away and mulder chases her and says "you're remembering!" because he is once again convinced of the reality of repressed memories due to his own personal experience

they're staring at this teenager as she sits crying on a picnic bench spilling her life story and again, the whole dealing with kids thing, who thought this was gonna be part of the fbi? not me!

this girl is crying, saying that her stepdad used to hurt her, and that they would chant and tie her and her sister up.... and well. this next part will also be best delivered from my notes verbatim:

"THEY WOULD GET ME PREGNANT AND THEN THEY WOULD KILL THE BABIES???? HUH??? I'VE HAD THREE CHILDREN AND THEY'RE ALL BURIED IN THE CELLAR??? STEPDAD KILLED HER SISTER??? WHAT THE FUCK"

and boy we do not even sort have time to unpack all of that. but it is safe to say that i was thoroughly gagged, and our agents seem only mildly surprised. in retrospect, i think they didn't believe her, which was further proved by a line like "imagine if what she is saying is true", but i, the viewer, believed her pig-induced memories

the girl is hysterical, and scully moves closer to hug her, and hold her while she sobs into her trench coat, and i'm sitting here wondering what is going on (very few answers are delivered btw)

(shoutout to scully to letting a strange teenager cry into her while confessing to all of That)

so the agents go over to the girl's parent's house, the stepdad of whom is in the PTA cult btw, and they ask about the things the daughter told them and i was shocked because. if they really WERE killing babies, telling them they knew about it could perhaps allow the parents to tamper with the evidence sitting in the basement. but the parents are shocked by the whole thing.

scully is asking why the daughter would say all this- and the mom is saying that her and stepdad have been having marriage problems- but i don't think that leads to THESE SORT OF CLAIMS?

at this point, i was deeply confused. i had no idea what to believe or where the narrative was leading me beyond the fact the substitute was evil. i wrote that i was "mentally putting up a board and there is string everywhere and i'm trying to figure out what is going on"

the girl had mentioned a sister who was killed by the stepdad at age 8- and scully says, well did you have any other kids? and the mom says yeah, one who died. and was she 8 when she died? not 8 years, but 8 weeks.

so what is going on here

scully is trying to be pretty careful and tiptoe around the situation, figure out what is real and what isn't, whereas mulder gets alone with stepdad and just asks him "did you do it?" which had me HOWLING. absolutely zero subtlety in this man.

he opens the door to the cellar and it SLAMS shut and stepdad man gets VERY angry and tells them to leave. can you do that? kick the fbi out while they're investigating you? i didn't realize that was an option

okay, so the girl is trying to make up her final, and is back with the substitute making up her pig autopsy because it's a final and of course you don't want to miss a final! the teacher takes her jewelry so it doesn't get dirty which makes sense to me, but then we see her in her office burning it over a candle??? and she's MOANING??? and it seems she's controlling the girl into CUTTING HER ARM??? she's bleeding out on the floor. and i'm still wondering what the hell is going on. but this poor girl is dead.

the agents are at the crime scene and the substitute is being weird af but i guess that's to be expected of someone who just did psychic murder

the PTA committee says the energy is very bad and they need to do a sacrifice to clear the air... so they say they're gonna frame the girl who just died as killing jerry, the og murdered boy, and say that she was jealous he liked another girl. and the stepdad seems pleased with this plot, which only made me further believe that he did the evil things he denied.

so at this point i was thinking, has anyone thought to check the cellar and see if there are in fact babies down there. no? just me? okay

mulder smells incense in the substitute's office, which she says is to cover the smell of pig, but he knows is also used in black mass, and frankly i'm shocked that it didn't set off the fire alarms, because i went to public school and i know how finicky those things are. but the situation is looking sus as hell because the actual teacher she's subbing for has only EVER missed these two days of school and also apparently he's out with... flesh-eating bacteria? that seems a bit odd, don't you think? AND no one can recall hiring this substitute.

there was a very loud and spooky clap of lightning here that felt reminiscent of the halloween specials of shows i used to watch as a kid. and i was wondering if this was perhaps meant as a halloween special of sorts. can anyone confirm.

mulder must have picked up on me telling him to go check the cellar for babies, so he gets a warrant and goes down there, but STEPDAD IS WAITING FOR HIM IN THE DARK! he's monologuing about his religion, and being raised to think that humans are no better than animals...

but then those in the PTA decided they would frame his dead daughter for jerry's murder, he realizes he IS better than an animal! better late than never for such a basic realization to hit, i suppose?

he also says that his beliefs were responsible for her being killed. so i hoped he would elaborate and surprise. he did not.

he admits to including them in ceremonies because the blood of the young is very powerful (???) but he says he never hurt them the way she claimed. and there were definitely no babies. she must have gotten that from the tabloids, and it mixed in with the repressed memories. which doesn't sound like how repressed memories work so i do not trust this guy still.

meanwhile the substitute is doing some witchery, while scully is still in the school! this cannot bode well for her!!!!

mulder is shocked by stepdad's stupidity, and says "did you really think you could call up the devil and ask him to behave?" which is objectively a banger line, even if used quite literally

the witch/substitute is moaning again and she's dialing numbers and mulder's phone rings, and scully's voice says there's something going on in the school, so he handcuffs stepdad to the cellar to get tf out of there, and locks the door behind him, but the cellar door OPENS????

A SNAKE IS COMING NOW???? he is BIG and is he gonna EAT stepdad...?

YES HE IS??? BOA AROUND THE NECK AND TORSO??? HUH?? what is going ON.

mulder arrives at the school just as the snake begins to feast, and he has his gun drawn and does his famous "scully?" yell, when he bursts in on her... just chilling in the dark and doing her work LMAO. he's all "why did you call?" and she says "i didn't?"

meanwhile the snake is doing some serious eating and the SUB HAS SNAKE EYES NOW?? HELLO?

they rush back to stepdad's place, where they find the door unlocked, and nothing but human bones on the ground and what looks like a snake track, which scully points out is impossible because it would take HOURS for a snake to eat a human and then weeks to digest...

and he makes some comment about her watching TLC and i'm thinking, well, i feel like knowing how long a snake would take to eat a human is more relevant than knowing which way the water goes down in a sink, so don't try and nerd shame her here.

but they find a snakeskin so they know it's a snake, and they remember there was a snake in the classroom, so it's time to get back there because clearly he has been consumed and there is not much that can be done to undo being eaten

the PTA folks are having a conference, talking about the death of stepdad, and how they need to make a sacrifice, and they say that if mulder knows what the sacrifice is for, it'll make it more meaningful, so ARE THEY GONNA SACRIFICE HIM??????

when mulder and scully return to the classroom, the substitute is moaning on the floor, saying she thinks the PTA folks killed the boy, and i'm like uh-huh, for sure, snake woman

scully opens her drawer and finds the eyeballs which are pretty incriminating... but as they go out to return to the substitute...

the PTA ATTACKS! a bookshelf is thrown on scully, and mulder is beaten by two men. and they are tied up and taken to the gym showers???? here i wrote "what the hell, there are two minutes left in this episode" and i was hoping it would somehow resolve itself so we didn't end up with another two parter and i could go to sleep after this in peace

(which. it did wrap up in those two minutes but i'm confused so there is little of the aforementioned peace i hoped for going on)

so the PTA crew has a dagger and a gun for sacrificial purposes, and they're about to be sacrificed in a high school gym shower, when the substitute uses her witch powers to make the PTA members turn the gun upon THEMSELVES, and frees our agents from their trouble. sort of. because they are still tied up and wet in the shower.

(does anyone know what the hell is happening.)

they stop writhing about and make it back to the classroom, where the substitute has written a note saying it's been nice working with you and then she's gone.

hey!! what ARE we doing here?

so i don't even know where to begin. i feel a lot of questions were raised and not one of them answered. what was up with that girl saying she was forced to give birth? were the parents denying it because it didn't happen or were they covering up the truth? what was with the whole eight year old vs eight weeks old dead sister? did the substitute kill jerry AND the girl, AND the PTA, and then just... leave? was she the dark force they were worshiping taking revenge on their lack of faith? but if that were the case, why would she kill the PTA members who were about to make a sacrifice? why would she kill the two kids and three adults but spare the agents? where did she go? why did she briefly have the eyes of a snake? where did the snake go? how did he eat a whole person that fast?

man. i'm not sure i've ever been so baffled.

was this an attempt to comment on the satanic panic? like, was the show pointing out how silly it was, or validating the fears of people across america?

i'm so deeply confused. can someone tell me if i'm missing something. was there some overarching theme that went over my head. is this setting up a part two where there will be answers. or is that the whole thing.

?????

[seriouslysam8]

Why do you think people hate on the Weasley’s so much? They get more hate than the Malfoy’s or other DE families. It seems to be the number one reason people hate Hinny, because they wanted Harry to not be apart of the Weasley family. The amount of people that think the Malfoy’s would have been a better family for Harry than the Weasley’s is baffling. A family that loved him versus a family that tried to kill him. Don’t even get me started on the Grangers would have been a better family for Harry than the Weasley’s. Their daughter didn’t even want to hang out with them during her break, why would Harry? Lol. I don’t understand the Weasley hate. Is it because they’re poor? I would kill to be a part of a family like that!

Honestly, it boggles my mind. I would kill to be apart of the Weasley family. I fucking love them. I adore writing them with their sibling banter. Molly and Arthur?? Can they be my parents, please?? They’d be a vast improvement to my narcissistic and awful real parents. To have so many siblings that would always have your back?? I mean, I dislike Percy, okay? But he did come to the final battle and fight WITH his family. There was still a smidge of decency left in him. But those Weasleys… man, they stick together. My favorite relationship to write is Ron and Ginny. Like they are definitely the type of siblings who are like “only I am allowed to make fun of them” sort of siblings.

I see common lines of thinking of blanket hatred for the Weasleys given one character’s actions. Like “Ron was a terrible friend ergo all the Weasleys suck.” Bitch, shut your face. Ron Weasley was the best friend Harry could have asked for. That boy at 11 wrote his mother to tell him about his orphaned to ensure he had Christmas presents to open on Christmas. That family that had no money made sure he got some - including a HANDMADE jumper. Boys are normally little jerks at that age. But our Ronnie… our Ronnie always looked out for Harry.

Molly? I mean, Molly deserves a medal. God, she just embraced that kid and allowed him to feel welcome and like a family. I can tell you… I have a shit mother. She’s awful. I refuse to refer to her as my mother in my real life and I go feral when someone calls her my mother. My MIL makes me feel so warm and welcome. She’s a Molly Weasley. Just two days ago, she called me because she (who knows nothing about HP) FaceTimed me because she was shopping out of town and the store had a massive HP collection of items. She went through it all, asking if I or the kids want anything for Christmas from there. Then, she apologizes to someone in the store and said, “oh, sorry. I’m not recording. You’re fine. I’m just talking to my daughter.” MY DAUGHTER. Every time she refers to me as her daughter, I get teary eyed. Her dad, when he was still alive, used to do the same damn thing. He always called me his granddaughter. It was like they just knew that I needed that to feel wanted and loved. You know Molly referred to Harry as her son and nothing else. As an abused kid, gosh, that means the world as an adult.

I honestly don’t understand the Malfoy love. I mean they’re awful people. They literally killed and tortured people. They belonged to a hate group. But the actors were hot so they’re better than the Weasleys, right? 🙄

So, I don’t know. I probably just rambled at 8 in the morning, but I have no clue. I’ll never understand the Weasley hate and the Malfoy love. At all. Fuck that. They’re missing out. They can keep their asshole family. I’ll cherish my little vegetable family.